The Posts I Cook From: 2011

About 20 years ago I had a friend in England who I wrote letters to.  Every time one of us wrote a letter we began with a paragraph apologizing for taking so long to write.  Until one day we decided that was a colossal waste of our time.  We knew that both of us were busy, or just lazy, and there would be lapses in our correspondence, so we could just assume the apology was not necessary, and implied.  I have been busy in the kitchen since I last wrote.  I am also happily writing as I have a new freelance food writing assignment.  I will tell you more about it later, for now I am a little afraid of jinxing it.  So just know I have news to come in the next few months, and I promise some blog posts.

Last year I did an end of year round up of The Posts I Cook From: 2010, in order to declare this a blog tradition here is the one for 2011.  These are the recipes that I pull out my computer to make, where I actually follow my recipe.  The times that I do not wing it in the kitchen.

Red Cabbage Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

This dressing served with shredded red cabbage has become a staple in my house since I first made it last winter.  Not just a recipe I prepare because my CSA gifts me with cabbage and carrots, as I find myself intentionally buying red cabbage to make this salad on a regular basis.  Even Sebastian, my 9 year old, will eat it on occasion.  When he does he never fails to point out that really, he does not like raw cabbage.  I think the more of it he eats, the less he should be making that claim.

Par Boiled Brown Rice

I have referred to this post and the steps for par boiling brown rice on numerous occasions since posting it here.  However for complete truth in posting I found Saveur's perfectly cooked brown rice instructions and my loyalty has now shifted.  However I am including it here because I did cook from this post in 2011, and this was a great way for me to show you this other method.

Sour Cream Spelt Waffles

These are my favorite waffles, they are the easiest to make because the egg whites are not whipped, and  they are rich and delicious.  Ever time I make them Julian gets mad that once again I have not made Sugar Waffles, and then he sits down and eats a whole pile of them.  Many nights when I cannot think of something to make for dinner these waffles end up being served, and nobody complains.  (All right Julian complains, but there is no way I am making a yeast waffle that has to rise for over an hour and is studded with sugar for dinner.

Baked Apple Puff

I don't really cook from this post, Lewis does.  However this is still a family favorite.  Although everyone but Lewis prefers it without the apples, just plain with fresh lemon juice squeezed over the top.  Mornings where Lewis is particularly hungry he makes one plain and one with apples, then he is guaranteed more then his fair share of the apple one.

Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

These muffins are now my go to blueberry muffin recipe.  The ones I make when I pick far to many berries at the U-pick farm, or I just have a craving.  They are balanced and sweet enough with a rich nutty flavor from the browned butter.

Armenian Lamb Sausage Pasta

This will always be my favorite pasta sauce, better then any I have had in a restaurant.  Now I finally have the recipe written down so maybe someone else in my family could make it some time, it is easy enough.

Whole Grain Popovers with Strawberry Butter

Popovers are one of the breakfasts that my children cheer about every time I serve it.  Having the post to cook from means I have all my notes and adjustments easily available.  The amazing thing is how little butter is in them, just enough to grease the tins.

Eggs Benedict With Whole Egg Hollandaise

For the times I really crave eggs benedict this is my go to recipe.  The whole egg hollandaise is just as rich and creamy as the egg yolk only version, but this way I don't have to worry about using up the egg whites (or should I say wasting).

Sour Cherry Raspberry Lime Jam

This is one of my children's top jam flavors of 2011.  One I will be putting up multiple batches of every summer to make them happy.  This recipe also ensures their happy cooperation in mom's sour cherry picking insanity.

Sour Cherry Petit Petit Jam

One person I gave a jar of this jam to said she and her parter almost came to blows over the last spoonful.  Deep, rich, cherry flavor to spread on toast or warm up and drizzle over ice cream or cheesecake.

Baked Tomatoes with Cheese

I love this recipe enough that in the last month I tried to recreate it with frozen tomatoes.  I would not recommend trying them that way.  Instead you should bookmark the recipe for the height of tomato season.

Green Tomato Beef Stew with Jamaican Spices

I cannot wait for green tomatoes to appear on my plants so I can make this again!  A use for green tomatoes that is not just because I am desperate to use them up, but instead one I am looking forward to eating.

Steakhouse Style Sear Roasted Strip Steak

Ever since trying this technique for making steak I have not bothered with any others.  In my house we share one small steak for dinner, so this makes the most of it.  Evert time I have made it, no matter how distracted I am, the result is perfect.

Tuscan Cannellini Beans with Sage and Onion

I made this dish again at Thanksgiving and everyone agreed they were a welcome addition.  Okay, my nieces may not have agreed.  But then again my brother made them pasta with nothing on it to eat for dinner that night while everyone else feasted.  So that may be a sign that this dish is full of flavor and satisfying.

Chocolate Marmalade Sandwich Cookies

I made these cookies again as soon as the first batch was eaten.  The second time I used David Lebovitz's chocolate tempering instructions and I was successful.  I also made the cookies by rolling out the dough and cutting them out with a square cutter.  I found this much easier and the cookies were just as good.  I would have taken new photos of them, if they weren't eaten so fast.

Red Cabbage Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing

Today's outside temperature briefly reached a balmy 0° F (that is - 18° in C).  My car has a thick layer of snow on the floor mats that warms up enough to vaporize and then freeze on the inside of the windshield.  Every car trip starts with scraping off the ice while my boys happily shout, "It's snowing in the car!"  Somehow the coldest days of a Vermont winter are also the most sunny and beautiful.  You look outside and think, "The weather report must be wrong, it can't really be that cold.  Look at how sunny and bright it is."  Then you step outside and your boogers freeze.

Today when we wanted to entice Sebastian and Julian outside along with their friends across the street, Ada and Ezra, we promised them a show.  I tossed boiling water in the air where it instantly vaporized sending out a cloud of steam.  We drained a kettle of water and all discovered the beauty of this cold day.  It might have been cold but it still took several minutes for our boogers to freeze.  Here is a video of our science experiment, if you live where it gets very cold I recommend you try this at home.

Sometimes in winter I crave something different, a dish with a fresh bright taste that allows you to look forward to spring and all the vivid flavors it brings.  The other week I made the carrot ginger dressing I discovered last spring and we used it to dress shredded cabbage.  Lewis, Julian and I each ate huge mounds of it.  Sebastian declined, despite his recent love of soy braised cabbage and creamy red cabbage with mustard and fennel seeds, he still thinks of himself as a cabbage hater.

I found myself craving it again today to go with the bright clear sunshine outside, and the freezing cold temperatures.  I figured out how to make it with an immersion blender as well, which I love for its easy clean up (plus I broke my mini food processor).

Carrot Ginger Dressing

1 large carrot (3 - 4 oz's), coarsely chopped
1 - 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh ginger (we seem to prefer 1 Tbsp but make it to your taste)
1 Tbsp sweet white or awase miso
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (today I ran out of rice wine vinegar and used champagne vinegar)
1 Tbsp roasted sesame oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp water

To make using an immersion blender (directions for blender of mini food processor below).  Place carrots, ginger, miso, vinegar and sesame oil in a pint sized wide mouth jar or 2 cup glass measuring cup (or similarly sized container).  Blend until finely chopped and blended.  Add the olive oil and water a tablespoon at a time, blending well after each addition.  Add more water if you want a thinner consistency.

To  make using a blender or mini food processor; pulse the carrots and ginger in a blender or mini food processor until finely chopped, scraping down the sided as needed. Add the miso, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil and blend until well combined. Add the extra virgin olive oil and water in a slow stream while the motor is running.   Add more water if you want a thinner consistency.

Serve on the salad or vegetables of your choice, shredded cabbage is a wonderful winter choice.

Soy Braised Cabbage

I made this dish for the first time ever as part of lunch for the preschoolers.  Turns out my terrible habit of preparing new dishes when making dinner for company extends to cooking food for a preschool.  In my defense what was the worst that would happen if the dish was not good?  Several preschoolers would say they hate cabbage, wait, they said that before I cooked it for them.  Hah, one of the rare instances of recipe roulette where a bad outcome would just maintain the status quo.  I had this beautiful, organic, local red cabbage that was donated and I needed a way to prepare it.  I could have made Creamy Red Cabbage with Fennel and Mustard Seed, but I thought it would really lose something without the wine.

I found a recipe for Red Cooked Cabbage in Andrea Chesman's The Garden Vegetable Cookbook and while it did call for sherry, I was not worried about leaving out a single tablespoon.  (If you want a copy of this cookbook I would recommend buying Serving up the Harvest instead.  It is the paperback version and is still in print, instead of the original title which is out of print, and expensive).  The combination of soy sauce and rice vinegar reminded me of some of my favorite tricks for vegetables so I put it on the next days menu.  At first I could not find the soy sauce at work so I used bragg's liquid amino acids with a touch of soy sauce added later when someone told me it was in the fridge (who stores soy sauce in the fridge?)  The final dish was even better then I was imagining, with a sweetness from the slow cooking, savory notes from the soy sauce and a complexity that seemed beyond the simple list of ingredients.  It was good enough that I decided to make it again that night for dinner at home.

When I made it for dinner I added the dry sherry originally called for in the recipe and I noticed five spice powder I should have used in the list of ingredients or at the very least I should have noticed I was omitting it.  When making it home I used star anise in place of the five spice powder I already knew would overpower the simple dish.  My conclusion is leave out the sherry and any spices beyond pepper.  The complexity of the dish comes from the subtle sweetness of the braised cabbage being complimented by the soys salty unami and the richness of the sesame oil.  The sherry and spices just detract from the dishes balance.  If I had served it with the sherry and spices at work not only would I have lost my job for serving alcohol in the preschool but it wouldn't have been worth it, because none of the children would have eaten it.

Soy Braised Cabbage (also called red cooked cabbage)

3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 small cabbage, red or green, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
1/2 cup water or broth
1/3 cup braggs liquid amino acids (or substitute soy sauce)
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dark Sesame Oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium high heat.  Saute the cabbage in the oil until it is wilted and everything is coated in oil.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.  Cover the pot and lower the heat to a gentle simmer.  Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When done the cabbage should be very tender and well flavored.

Creamy Red Cabbage with Fennel and Mustard Seed

The other day I had some pork chops to prepare for dinner and I was bored by any of my usual recipes. So I pulled one of my favorite cookbooks, Molly Stevens' All About Braising, down off the shelf and immersed myself in the pork section. I found a recipe for pork chops with creamy cabbage, which was handy as I had half a head of red cabbage in the fridge, (the recipe calls for green cabbage). Wait I hear you crying, there is no mention of pork in the title of this post! Well, while I did find this recipe because I had pork chops, in the end the chops were not the star, and for this braise not essential. In most braises that include meat, there is a mingling of flavors from the meat and the vegetables, seasonings and liquid. Doing without any one element would defeat the whole purpose of the original braise and leave you with boring food. In this braise though the pork added little if anything to the cabbage.

The cabbage however was delicious, creamy as the name implies and subtly flavored. The flavors would have been more aggressive if I went with the spicing Molly used. The original calls for caraway seed and yellow mustard seed. However I was not in the mood for the caraway cabbage combination that is so common. I love the flavor of the pork loin braised in milk from the same book, that uses fennel seed. Fennel seed does not add a strong licorice flavor here, so please try this even if you don't like licorice. In fact the fennel here is even more subtle than it is in sweet italian sausage.

This recipe is a great discovery for me as we have a winter CSA, (Community Supported Agriculture) at the Intervale Community Farm that unmercilessly gifts us with a head of cabbage every other week. Slowly I am learning how to prepare the cabbage so we actually want to eat it, the 2 butternut squashes every other week are still a challenge. So in the future I will be making this without the pork chops as a side dish. I have included the chops in the recipe because they were tasty, just not amazing, and there is a lot to be said for one pot meals. I am thinking in the future I will also try this with my hand formed lamb sausages in place of the pork.

Creamy Red Cabbage with Fennel and Mustard Seed

With or Without Pork

4 1 inch thick pork chops (try to buy pork that has not been enhanced with water and chemicals)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup flour

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 large shallot

2 cloves of garlic, germ removed if any, smashed

1/2 head small red cabbage (about 1 pound), cored and thinly shredded

1/2 cup riesling wine, or your favorite white wine, not too dry

2/3 cup water

1 Tbsp sherry vinegar

1 small chicken bouillon cube crushed (or use a veggie cube if you are making this for vegetarians, leave out the pork too)

1/4 cup half and half

Make sure the pork chops are dry and season on both sides with salt and pepper and then dredge in the flour on both sides. Heat the oil in a shallow 10 - 12 inch braising pan (I used my 12 inch Le Creuset deep saute pan) over medium high heat. When the oil is hot tap the excess flour from each chop and place as many as will fit without touching. Cook without moving them about 4 minutes until browned, turn and cook on the second side until well browned, 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a large plate, pour of any remaining oil and wipe out any flour from the pan.

(Start here if you are making the cabbage without the pork) Melt the butter over medium heat and add the fennel and mustard seed, Cook stirring with a silicone spatula until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Add the shallot and sauté until the shallot has softened, approximately 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and smashed garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium low. Cook the cabbage, stirring often until it is wilted.

Add the wine and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the water, vinegar, and bouillon cube and stir to dissolve the bouillon cube and blend the flavors. Bring to a gentle simmer and then lay the pork chops on top of the cabbage (if using pork). Cover tightly and reduce heat to low and simmer gently. Check after a few minutes that the liquid is simmering very slowly, if not reduce the heat or use a heat diffuser. Turn the chops after 10 minutes and braise until the chops register 150° on a meat thermometer. this should take about 20 minutes, if omitting pork, braise for 20 minutes.

Transfer the pork chops to a serving dish and increase the heat to medium high to bring the liquid to a boil. Stir in the half and half and boil gently to thicken the liquid. Taste for salt and pepper and serve, spooning cabbage over the chops if serving chops.

Note: Since posting this I have made the cabbage without the pork chops. My husband said it was better without the pork. Although in all honesty i have to say I changed it slightly because i did not have any riesling on hand. I used water with a splash of cream sherry for the riesling.